Hi, I'm Tara Stiles and today on the Yoga Solution, I'm gonna show you a great routine
that you can do in 5 minutes to increase your flexibility.
Let's get started.
Start sitting nice and tall here, however you can sit comfortably.
Just for a moment close your eyes and start to draw your attention a little bit deeper
inward.
And simply beginning to lengthen your inhales and deepen your exhales here.
So setting an easy and full pace of breath you can stay with for a little while.
And take a big inhale, reach your arms all the way up and over your head.
And then as you exhale, we'll bring your right hand down toward the ground.
Soften up your elbow.
Nice easy opening in your side here.
And then gently come all the way back up to the middle.
Same thing other side here.
Tipping over, left hand finds the ground.
Soften up your elbow.
Easy, easy opening here.
Nice, big, full, deep breaths.
And gently open yourself back to your middle here, and we'll walk forward a little ways,
maybe just a couple steps if this feels like enough of an opening here.
Or maybe a few more if that feels nice to you.
And just let the weight of your head and neck soften into toward the ground.
Maybe sway gently side to side.
And when you're ready, slowly rounding up from this one.
And we'll bring your fingertips right behind you on the ground.
As you push down, lift your chest right upward.
Maybe even lift your hips up a bit here, if that feels nice.
And when you're ready, ease yourself all the way back to your middle here.
And so we'll just stretch your left leg out toward the side here.
Keep your right leg tucked in.
Bring your left hand down to the ground inside of the leg.
Soften up your elbow.
Reach this opposite arm all the upward here, so much up that maybe you simply start to
tip on over.
If you happen to grab the toes, just use that grip to spin open even more.
If the toes are far away that's totally cool too.
Just keep spinning the torso upward.
Breathe a lot.
And when you're ready, bring yourself up from this one here.
We'll unwind with a twist.
Left hand finds your knee.
Fingertips behind you.
Big inhale to sit up tall, and then as you exhale, spinning around a little bit more.
And when you're ready, coming back to the middle here.
We'll draw this leg all the way and give it a good squeeze in front of your body.
So either holding your foot and right above your knee if the hips feel pretty tight here.
If there's a little bit more room to work with, you can slide your foot in your elbow.
Kind of cradling the leg here.
Sitting up super tall.
Nice.
So just sit up so tall here that maybe you slide your bottom heel all the way forward
out in front of you.
Lengthening that leg, sit up nice and tall, give the shin a big squeeze.
And then as you exhale, we'll place the foot right outside of this hip here.
So take a big inhale reach your right arm all the way up.
And then as you exhale, we'll cross the arm over your leg.
Opposite fingertips right behind your body.
Big inhale to sit up tall.
And then as you exhale, gently spin around a little bit further, a little easier.
And just a simple counter twist here, unwinding, spinning around the other way.
And gently bring yourself back to the middle here.
We'll just interlace your hands around the bottom of your foot.
Sit up nice tall, maybe even start to extend this leg out in front of you.
If there's no room to have a tall back and a straight leg, just soften the knee here
and keep the back nice and long.
So wherever you're at breathe a lot.
And we'll take a twist from this one here.
So bring your right hand to the outside of your foot.
Left fingertips behind you.
Big inhale to sit up really tall.
And then as you exhale, spin around a little bit more.
And gently bring yourself back to the middle here.
We'll stretch both feet all the way down to the ground and put a little softness in your
knees, and we'll just start to fold all the way up and over your legs here.
Breathing a lot.
And when you're ready, slowly come all the way from this one here.
So we'll just switch sides, tucking the left leg in, extending your right leg all the way
out to the side.
Bring your right hand down toward the ground, soften up your elbow.
Reach this opposite arm all the way up here.
And, again, so much up that maybe you run out of up and start tipping over.
If your hand reaches your foot, maybe bring your other hand around to your knee.
You can use that pressure to roll your shoulder inside here and spin open even more.
If that's not happening again, doesn't matter.
Just keep everything opening upward.
And when you're ready, slowly bring yourself up from this one.
In line with a twist, hand finds your knee, opposite fingertips behind you.
Big inhale to sit up tall.
And then as you exhale, spin around a little bit more.
And we'll come back to your middle here.
Again, cradling this leg here.
So either holding your foot and your knee.
If the hips are really tight or there's knee problems, don't tweak your knees or push past
any pain here.
So make sure you can always breathe and be pain-free.
So we'll sit up so tall here.
We'll have you slide this other heel all the way out in front of you.
Big inhale to lengthen up nice and tall to open up the hips.
And then as you exhale, place your foot right outside this extended hip here next to your
body.
So big inhale, reach your left arm up.
And then as you exhale, cross the arm over.
Fingertips come behind you.
Big inhale to sit up tall.
And then as you exhale, spin around a little bit more.
And we'll unwind with a nice counter twist here.
So big deep, long inhale, and then easy exhale.
And we'll come back to your middle here.
So interlacing your hands underneath this foot here.
Again, sitting up nice and long in the spine.
Again, so tall in the spine that maybe this heel just starts to extend forward.
And, again, if the leg doesn't go all way straight, it really doesn't matter.
Just keep a nice, long back so the knee can be as bent as you need it to be.
Just breathe a lot.
And when you've had enough of that one, gently relax the leg all the way back down to the
ground here.
So stretching both heels all the way forward, sit up nice and tall in your spine.
And then as you exhale, crawling all the way up and over the legs here.
So make sure you keep a nice bend in the knees, especially if there's tension in the hamstrings
or lower back.
This way you can have the nice opening without the stress or frustration involved there of
kind of touching your toes.
But if there's lots of room to go in the hamstrings, you can always slide the heels out too.
And just relax your arms down on the ground here.
And just breathe a whole, whole lot.
Really big, deep inhales.
Make a little bit more space.
And then long exhales to move you right in.
And then when you're ready, gently roll yourself all the way up from this one, and you're done.
Great job.
So there you have it: A great routine that you can do in 5 minutes to increase your flexibility.
I'm Tara Stiles and I'll see you next time on the Yoga Solution.